Today, the medical business is already becoming a “marketing business”. This means that, now, for the survival of business and prosperity, it is no longer enough just to treat. In an increasingly competitive environment, it is necessary to be very good at promoting services and understanding marketing.
Marketing – why it is the need of the day today.
A few years ago, all private medical clinics focused mainly on the production and provision of quality treatment: it was enough to open a clinic in a good location, install high-quality equipment and hire good professional specialists, and as time passed, there was a large flow of patients. The few advertising channels available worked more efficiently.
But today this is not enough! Today, the flow of patients, maximum workload and high income can only be created by those companies where there is a clear positioning, a well-thought-out strategy for attracting and retaining patients, and a marketing and sales service – in addition to quality treatment mentioned above!
In order for the business in the dental clinic to go well, it is important for the owner and managers to pay special attention to marketing activities.
But it often happens that though the marketing activity seems to be underway, the business owner and manager do not see the desired result. When communicating with the owners of dental clinics and conducting individual consultations, I often come across such an attitude –
“Advertising does not work!”
“Marketing is not effective”
“It is very expensive!”
“We cannot afford it! “
Why does it happen? Top 3 Mistakes!
Today we will look at the main mistakes that prevent you from achieving success in promotion and talk about how to fix them or not at all.
https://dentalreach.today/dental-education/8-marketing-tactics-for-dentists/
Mistake #1. Insufficient control of marketing by managers and business owners.
Often, owners outsource promotional activities to the marketer and believe that he/she alone is responsible for attracting new customers and patients. And the manager and the owner should not touch these processes. This is a misconception that leads to marketing failure and disappointment.
For what I personally love marketing very much, it is because it is very well measured, well controlled, and results are quickly visible in it. However, if the manager himself does not monitor the process on a daily basis, does not supervise it effectively, does not control marketers and does not set tasks for them, then the effectiveness of the promotion will be very low.
In order to control marketing, you need to track statistics and indicators. But, unfortunately, this is not always done. Very often, communicating with managers and owners, I see that statistics and indicators are not monitored.
Since they are not measured, it is difficult to understand which channels are currently bringing patients and what the cost of applications and calls is, as well as how much primary patients cost to the clinic. Without this, it is impossible to calculate the effectiveness of advertising. The result is a loss of income and a drain on the advertising budget.
Mistake #2. Use of outdated/new promotion channels that do not track trends, tendencies and principles of social networks.
Marketing is changing very rapidly. Perhaps even faster than medical technology. Therefore, in addition to monitoring statistics and indicators, you must keep your finger on the pulse and always be aware of the latest trends in promotion, monitor the emergence of new channels and social networks and understand their specifics. In addition, you must choose a digital marketing specialist who can do so too.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that today, digital promotion is considered the most effective tool, but it is very expensive. Resources such as Facebook, Instagram, Google Adwards, YouTube are all exchange platforms. They work on the principle of an auction – the more the market participants use their advertising opportunities, the more expensive the application or lead (potential client) is. Plus, these stock exchanges change their algorithms at least once every six months, and therefore what worked in the fall is no longer working in the spring and summer. This means that in order to “ride” this wave of constant changes, marketers today must be very professional and have, just like in medicine, a rather narrow specialization. It is necessary that marketers and managers constantly train themselves to acquire new knowledge in this area.
Now only those dental clinics are flourishing that are perfectly oriented in the promotion and control of it, where owners and managers delve into processes, build a marketing department, train their staff, invest in advertising and use many customer acquisition channels.
Today, there are already more than 50 social media platforms. What matters the most is choosing the right one, maybe 2 to 3 and doing the right thing by justifying your customers.
Therefore, if you invest today in the right 1-2 channels, consistantly, you are likely to get the desired result. It is necessary to create a wide information field and use multiple channels. Because today there is no channel that, like a magic wand, will provide you with a large flow of primary clients or leads. However, there are 30-40 channels with their own specific tools and audience that can be used.
Think very clearly about which advertising offer to launch in a particular channel, analyze what the minimum cost of a lead will be, track it daily and evaluate which channel can be used more strongly.
If you don’t control and track all this, you will drain your advertising budget and get very few leads. Using multichannel monitoring with ongoing monitoring will help you ensure an increase in the number of leads and primary patients.
Your income will start to grow as soon as you take control of working with your base – and the base begins with advertising and promotion.
https://dentalreach.today/dental-education/8-marketing-tactics-for-dentist/
Mistake #3. Outsource marketing but not teamwork to promote within the clinic.
Advertising and promotion is not the same thing. Advertising is an external channel where you need to “fill” your marketing budget. These are not costs, but investments that with proper control, bring good results and return on investment.
Promotion is an external and internal activity, including the involvement of employees in it. This means that teamwork is extremely important.
Therefore, the main postulate today is that marketing is teamwork. It will no longer be possible to give this activity to a marketer or advertising agency on a turnkey basis. This will not bring full results!
If you do not build a corporate culture of mutual support in your dental clinic, set the rules of the game, create work standards, convey to your employees the idea that marketing is a team activity, and will not involve doctors in it, train, insist on suggestions in content creation and promotion, then your marketing will be ineffective.
Your employees should be actively involved in ideas for useful content for social networks and corporate websites, collecting feedback from patients and getting customers to recommend your services to their friends and acquaintances. Remember that no marketer will be able to provide you with original and useful content if the doctors, specialists and administrators themselves are not involved in it.
It is important to realize that all employees of the company who, in one way or another, contribute to attracting and retaining customers, are, to some extent, “marketers”, because marketing is about attracting and retaining customers.
If you, as the owner or manager, are concerned about attracting clients and ensuring the maximum workload of the clinic’s specialists, but the specialists are passive and believe that they only treat and advise, then the return of patients to the clinic will be weak. In order for a patient to come and stay for treatment, it is necessary to gain his trust. Thanks to social networks, trust can be won even before customers come! Since trust is formed easily in specialists, they should be maximally involved in marketing activities.
https://dentalreach.today/dental-research/selling-without-selling/
But how do you motivate employees to do marketing?
Communicate the above ideas to subordinates, hold meetings and conversations with each of them, show a marketing and income funnel. Demonstrate where they are underpaid, where doctors “lose” patients. Show why they have low salaries and are underutilized. You have to motivate employees to participate in the promotion, as well as record and re-record customers and enter appropriate marketing metrics.
Read more about the related articles below by clicking on the titles:
How to improve your practice productivity?
The Secret to success in Dentistry
Only this approach will ensure your success and full load!
https://dentalreach.today/dental-education/why-nobody-cares-about-your-business/
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